Wait, Did Donald Trump Impersonate His Own Publicist?

In a very strange turn of events, it appears that Donald Trump may have acted as his own publicist under an alias, a “John Miller,” in a taped 1991 phone interview with People Magazine’s Sue Carswell.

Trump has vigorously denied that it is him on the tape, saying on the Today Show yesterday “this sounds like one of the scams, one of the many scams — doesn’t sound like me.” He was a little more overt later when he said “it was not me on the phone. And it doesn’t sound like me on the phone, I will tell you that, and it was not me on the phone. And when was this? Twenty-five years ago?”

During an interview Friday with the Washington Post, Trump was asked about whether or not he employed a John Miller in the early 90s. After a few moments of silence the phone went dead and Trump would not return further calls from the Post. Not a smoking gun, but compelling circumstantial evidence.

Judge for yourself in the above audio from the Washington Post. It does sound a lot like Donald Trump, and he uses phrases that Trump often uses like “you know” and “frankly.” A talented impersonator could probably do it, but several people close to Trump at the time of the interview identified the voice as Trump’s.

In the saddest portion of the Washington Post article, in 1991 then girlfriend Marla Maples identified the voice on the tape as Trump’s: “Then Carswell played the tape for Maples, who confirmed it was Trump and burst into tears as she heard Miller deny that a ring Trump gave her implied any intent to marry her.”